Chapter 3

               Low Orbit

               Huntington

               Free Worlds League

               29 January 3077              

 

               Marie woke up sore and disoriented, her head swimming.  She took a sharp breath as she realized she was on a dropship, and that meant the events of the previous day had in fact been real.  She turned her head to see her mother sitting in a chair next to the bed.  Rachel offered a small smile.

               “Morning,” her mom said.

               “…hey,” Marie answered hesitantly.  She sat up, wincing with the pain of a splitting migraine.  It wasn’t an unfamiliar sensation; it took time for her brain to adjust to an unfamiliar ‘Mech, and Bessie was about as unfamiliar as they came.  The fallout from flying the ‘Mech yesterday left her mind a mess.  Even after all the emotion and stress had come pouring out of her, she still felt so scrambled up she could barely think.

               Seeing the emotions fighting on her daughter’s face, Rachel patted Marie’s hand.  “It’s OK,” she said quietly.  “It’s OK, honey.”

               Marie pulled her hand back and shook her head.  “It’s not OK, mom.  Nothing about this is OK!  We left everything behind again.  We’re locked up until someone decides to shoot us out the airlock.  I stole a battlemech and I watched my friends die right in front of me.  What about that is OK?”

               Rachel’s mouth went tight at that.  “It was a horrible day,” she said.  “Can you tell me about it?  What happened to you?”

               Marie sighed quietly and pressed one hand over her forehead.  “It’s like I told the captain yesterday.  I went to the ‘Mech bay to finish up some work, but the pilot…” she shook her head and swallowed.  “He started shooting,” she continued, frustrated at how small her voice sounded.  “He killed Sam and Bob, he…he was about to kill me.”  Rachel’s face tightened at that.  “I killed him.  I had to.  Self-defense,” Marie went on, pointedly avoiding looking at her mother as she did so.

               “Are you okay with that?” Rachel asked.

               Marie was silent for a minute before shaking her head.  “I threw up, mom,” she said weakly.  She took a shuddering breath, and as Rachel tried to squeeze her arm, she pushed her mother’s hand away again.  “So I had to get out,” she went on.  “His Phoenix Hawk was right there, and I knew the code.  I got her started and got out of there.”

               Rachel looked like she had something to say, but she didn’t voice it.  Instead she gestured for Marie to go on.  “So when did you get in the aerofighter?”

               “I didn’t,” Marie answered with a nervous laugh.  “That fighter I flew here?  It’s the battlemech.”  This got her a confused look.  “I don’t get it either, mom.  It’s been a crazy twenty-four hours.” 

               “It has,” Rachel agreed somberly.  “Marie, I’m so sorry.  You know I would have waited for you.  I did everything I could to slow down the launch.  You must have been so scared when you saw the ship had already taken off.”

               Marie shook her head and ran her hand over her face.  She still felt dizzy, like her brain was refusing to wake up all the way.  “I figured it out,” she said.  “But what happened with you?  They wouldn’t let you off the ship?”

               “The Hammers decided to attack,” Rachel answered.  “I was in the middle of recording a message to your brother.  I couldn’t get that sent off in time,” she said bitterly.  “Everything happened very suddenly.  The captain, well…you’ve heard the same reports he has.  When bombs started going off, he decided it was time to go.”

               Marie nodded quietly at that.  All over the Inner Sphere there were reports of surprise attacks just like the one on Huntington.  Some were perpetrated directly by the Word of Blake in their jihad.  Countless more were caused by mercenary units unwittingly hired by the Word of Blake, along with others who willingly worked with the jihadists in their pursuit of more C-bills.  Add in that the Word of Blake openly shirked the Ares Conventions and was more than willing to launch nuclear and chemical weapons or destroy civilian targets, there were plenty of antsy dropship captains in the Inner Sphere right now.

               “I did everything I could to slow down the launch,” Rachel said.  “I convinced the captain he at least needed to wait until the mercenaries who’d booked passage caught up to us.  A good captain never flies the ship empty.”  This elicited a knowing nod from Marie.  Rachel went on,  “I was sure you’d be trailing in any second, but then the mercenaries showed up in a hurry to leave, and I was overruled.  I was going to have us wait in orbit until the attack was over.  Then I heard your voice on the radio, and…” she shook her head.  “I wasn’t about to leave you behind.  That captain can do what he wants to me, I don’t regret it for a second.”

               Marie managed a smile at that.  “Thanks,” she said quietly. 

               Rachel took her hand, squeezing it tightly.  “But listen to me, you can’t do that again,” Rachel said, her voice firm.  “When everything was going crazy the worst part was not knowing where you were.  I kept calling you and didn’t get an answer.  I was losing my mind until I heard your voice.”

               “I was busy,” Marie said defensively.  “It’s not like I was expecting a sneak attack.”

               “I needed to know you were all right,” Rachel said.  “Our family’s gotten really small these past few years.  I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you, too.”

               Marie felt a familiar pang of guilt at the tone in Rachel’s voice.  She nodded.  “All right, mom.  Sorry,” she said quietly. 

               Rachel seemed to accept that, though she kept hold of Marie’s hand.  Marie could see her mother was waiting for her to talk, albeit very patiently.  After a few minutes of silence she sighed.  “What happens to her now?” she asked.

               “Who?”  Rachel asked.  “Did someone else come up with you?”

               “Bessie did,” Marie answered.  “The ‘Mech, or aerofighter, or whatever-it-is that got me here.  I…the pilot’s gone, so what happens to her now?”

               Rachel’s mouth tightened.  “What are you thinking?”

               “I don’t know,” Marie mumbled.  “I just…if I’d taken a Chameleon instead, I’d have had to give it back to the Rangers.  But the Phoenix Hawk…no one owns her right now.  There’s a lot going on, and I just want to know what happens to her.”

               Rachel shook her head.  “I’m sure someone will claim her,” she said matter-of-factly.  “Things are crazy at the moment, but you can bet they’re taking stock of who and what got off the planet.  “You were a part-time technician, Marie.  You don’t get salvage rights.  You know the ‘Mech’s not yours.  I’m sorry.”

               Try and sound like you mean it, Marie thought to herself.  “Yeah, I know, mom,” she said bitterly.  She sighed again and let go of her mother’s hand. 

               They fell silent again for several minutes after that.  “We need to think about the next steps,” Rachel finally said.  “I’m pretty sure we both just quit from the crew.”  Marie sagged at that and nodded mutely.  “We’ll need to find another ship to work on.  I know the next jump takes us to Trondheimal.”

               “All right, mom,” Marie replied, defeated.

               “That takes us out of the Free Worlds League, so things might be a little calmer.  And we’re still far away from Kuritan space.”

               Not that any Kuritans care about us, Marie thought to herself, but managed to keep her mouth shut. 

               “Maybe the captain will let me transmit a message to Daniel after we jump,” Rachel went on.  “If you have anything you want to add…”

               “Not now, mom,” Marie said tiredly.  “Can I just get a minute?”

               Rachel went quiet at that, a pained look going across her face.  Marie did her best to ignore it, along with the awkward silence that fell over the two of them.  She hadn’t thought it was possible to be more cramped in a dropship, but now she and her mother were locked in the room together, unable to give each other any space at all.  She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she tried to get her head clear.  Her brain kept playing back yesterday’s events to her, as much as she tried to get it to stop.

               The silence broke suddenly when the door unlocked.  Marie tensed as Sergeant Thomas appeared in the doorway.  He had one tray of military rations that he left on the ground.  Despite herself Marie’s stomach gurgled at the sight, reminding her that she hadn’t had anything to eat yesterday.

               Before she could ask how they were supposed to split one meal between the two of them, Thomas pointed at Marie and told her to come with him.  Marie clenched her fists, her heart climbing into her throat as she pictured him leading her to the airlock.  For her part, Rachel’s calm mask slipped back into place.  She stood up and told Marie it would be fine, handing her an energy bar off of the tray Thomas had brought.  Then Thomas stepped back outside, gesturing for her to follow. 

               Marie sighed and straightened out her coveralls, and flexed her knees – she’d been so burned-out yesterday that she’d fallen asleep without taking her legs off.  The joints were a little stiff, but the batteries still had enough charge to move for a couple more hours.  She took the offered energy bar with a word of thanks; at least the rest of her could recharge en route to wherever she was being taken.

               She said a brief goodbye to her mother and stepped through the door.  Outside, Thomas locked the door again and nodded at another crewman to take over guard duty before starting down the corridor, telling Marie to follow him.

               Marie unwrapped the energy bar as she walked and hungrily started chewing it down.  “Where are we going?” she asked him, her mouth full.  She noticed right away they were not headed towards the bridge.

               “Lieutenant wanted to meet with you,” Thomas replied succinctly.

               She raised her eyebrows at that, and swallowed.  “Is this Lieutenant in charge of punishing me?”

               “No, she’s my lance commander.  She wants to talk.”

               Marie raised an eyebrow at that, but said nothing, and went back to eating the energy bar.  She looked Thomas over as they walked – he looked every inch the military man.  He was without his body armor and helmet today, letting her see his dirty blond hair and muscular build.  He was a little below average height for a man, which made him a centimeter or two shorter than her.  Of course, being below average height was actually a bonus for a mechwarrior – in the tight confines of a cockpit, every centimeter mattered.

               “So you’re one of the mech jocks?” she finally asked him.  He didn’t answer.  “So…what, you decided it was getting too hot on Huntington?”

               “Save questions for the Lieutenant,” Thomas said coldly, not even looking at her.

               “All right, what’s the LT want to talk to me about?”  Thomas ignored the question.  “You know silence just tells me I won’t like the answer, right?”

               Again, there was no response.  Marie’s lips went tight and she turned her attention to the ship around her.  A Leopard dropship was a craft that had started with mech bays and added on an engine.  Everything after that was just an afterthought to fill the blank spaces in between – that included things like living quarters, bathrooms, galleys, and storage lockers.  Life on a dropship was notoriously cramped and dirty.  Yet even with that in mind, the Sirocco seemed especially crowded today.  She’d thought maybe the crowds from earlier were just gawkers come to look at the crazy aero pilot who’d landed under fire.  Today it looked like they were all still there.  Everywhere she looked there were people, families crowded into corners talking quietly with each other, some crouched on the floor eating granola bars and ration packs, or comforting small children who looked shell-shocked.  Marie spotted a few sleeping bags laid out on the floor, turning the already-cramped hallways into one-lane passages she and Thomas had to squeeze down, shimmying awkwardly past any crew coming the other way.  She would have expected the crew or the mechwarrior to bark at the civilians to clear the path.  The fact that they didn’t hinted at just how many people had been able to squeeze their way onto the ship before it departed.

               The Sirocco did not have a dedicated hangar area like a bigger dropship would.  Instead it had a cluster of four ‘Mech bays amidships, just ahead of the massive fusion engine.  They were split into pairs, with two bays on either side of the ship and a corridor running between them to let ship’s crew move to and from the engines.  That corridor was easily the largest part of the ship, but at the moment it was the most crowded, having been turned into a makeshift camp.  If the hallways earlier had been busy, this was practically a city of sleeping bags.  The noise of conversations filled the air, as did the smell of sweaty bodies.  .

               A woman off on one side waved Marie and Thomas towards her before disappearing through a door into one of the ‘Mech bays.  Thomas obediently led Marie towards the door after the woman.

               Inside it was like stepping into a different universe.  The all-consuming buzz of the crowd disappeared as soon as the door closed behind them.  Without so many bodies the air temperature dropped precipitously.  Marie was quietly thankful for the engineer’s coveralls and what little insulation they could offer. 

               The hangar’s main occupant was the battlemech, towering over everything from its position locked into place in the gantry.  Marie recognized it as an RTX1-O Raptor, and from the scorch marks on its armor it had recently seen action.  The room’s living occupants were a group of three people sitting around one giant metal foot of the battlemech.  There were two men along with the woman who’d waved them in.  From the confident way they were standing around the battlemech, Marie knew without asking that they were all mechwarriors.

               “Lieutenant,” Thomas said, halting in place and saluting the woman sharply.  He gestured towards Marie.  “Pilot McCloud,” he added on in introduction.

               “Thank you Sergeant,” the woman replied with a nod.  “Pilot, come on over here.  Sit,” she said, waving at a folding chair that had been set out.

               Marie’s eyes flickered around, first to the woman, then the other two men, and then – briefly – at the giant bay doors.  Just on the other side of that was the void of space.  It was hard to believe the 10-meter-tall battlemech was actually the least intimidating thing in the hangar right now.

               She thought she heard a few snickers from the group at her obvious discomfort.  Clenching her jaw, she made her way over to the chair and sat down.  Almost before her butt had hit the chair, the woman – the Lieutenant – had come over to her and pressed a cup of coffee into her hand.  Marie took it with a mumbled word of thanks, and smelled it, taking in the bland aroma of dropship-grade coffee.

               “Doesn’t matter what boat you’re on or what outfit you’re working with, the coffee’s always terrible,” the woman said.  She extended a hand towards Marie.  “I’m Lieutenant Holly Caradin.”

               “A pleasure,” Marie answered flatly, returning the shake as best she could.  Caradin was a shorter woman, with short black hair and copper-toned skin.  Marie wasn’t sure what to think of the hard look in the woman’s eyes, untouched by her polite smile.

               “That one over there is Heihachi Hoshino,” Caradin said with a nod towards an overweight man with almond-shaped eyes.  Hoshino smiled in response.  Then Caradin gestured at the other man, who was thickly-built with sharp features, wild eyes, and a shock of brown hair that was showing hints of gray around his temples.  “That’s Wolfgang.  Don’t bother asking for a family name, that’s all he’s got.  And you’ve met my XO,” Caradin finished with a wave at Thomas.  “We’re Holly’s Hussars, formerly attached to Rico’s Rangers.”

               “Yeah, too bad they couldn’t afford to keep us around,” Wolfgang muttered, just loudly enough to be heard. 

               “I thought we should get acquainted,” Caradin went on, pointedly ignoring the man.  “Basic professional courtesy.  It sounds like we’ll be sharing space on the Sirocco for the next week.”

               “A week, huh?” Marie asked.  “Sounds like you know more than I do.  I just got here.”

               “But a very memorable entrance!” Hoshino added on.  “Not a soul on this ship does not know who you are.  Better to be a celebrity than to know answers, yes?”  Marie gave the man an awkward look at that, not sure if he was joking or not.

               “Anyway…” Caradin continued.  “Our contract on Huntington was officially ended just a day ago.  We already had this ship lined up to take us to the next job, but things got crazy yesterday, as you saw.”

               “Yeah…” Marie replied hesitantly.  “What’s your story, anyway?  When I left it was like everyone was fighting.  How’d you get away?”

               Caradin tilted her head in a nod of sympathy.  “It was a hard day for everyone.  Our contract with Rico’s Rangers was up and we were officially off-duty.  I was getting my lance ready for transport to the next job when the captain of this ship contacts me to say he’s leaving in the next hour.  So we had to scramble to get on board before we got left behind.”  She quirked an eyebrow at Marie.  “Unless you were asking if we were running from a fight?”

               Marie shrugged.  “The captain sure was.”

               Caradin smirked at the comment.  “Yes, he sure was.  And there aren’t a lot of ships that’ll cater to a one-lance unit, so either we were on board this one or we were breaking our next contract, and these days it’s a really bad look to break contract.  I hear your mother was the reason the ship waited for us by the way, so pass along my thanks for that,” she said with a nod.

               “Those outside say thanks to your mother as well,” Hoshino added on.  “So many Huntington residents were trying to get away from the bombs, and they found this ship was waiting with its engines live and its doors open waiting for us.”

               Caradin nodded at the man.  “Guess a few of them managed to squeeze onboard before we made it, eh?”

               Marie nervously shrugged at that, unable to tell if the lieutenant was angry or impressed by the crowds on the ship.

               “And we didn’t just scamper outta there.  Damn planet still got us to fight for free on our way out,” Wolfgang added.

               Caradin nodded quietly at that.  Marie glanced up at the Raptor again, her eyes going over the scars on its armor.

               “I got off easy,” Caradin said, spotting Marie’s attention.  “These other guys will need some time in a repair bay before we’re ready to roll out again.  But the Hammers we ran into will need more than a repair bay, right guys?”

               This elicited a small cheer from the three men, though Marie spotted the bitter look on Thomas’s face.

               “From what I heard you gave some Hammers a tough time, too,” Caradin said.  She tilted her head to one side, considering Marie. 

               Marie shrugged, doing her best to look nonchalant.  “Not my first hot extraction.  You should’ve seen the one on Galedon,” she added on, rapping her fist on her knee, getting a solid tapping of knuckles on plastic.

               All four of the mechwarriors went quiet at that.  Hoshino’s smile fell, while Wolfgang turned his head and spat.  Marie’s stomach tensed, but she kept a stoic face on.  She knew why they all looked like she’d just insulted a Comstar precentor to his face.  The so-called “Curse of Galedon” had made news across the Inner Sphere a few years ago.  A bio plague had broken out there, decimating the planet’s population.  People that evacuated had just brought the disease with them, spreading it over the neighboring planet of An Ting.  Both planets were considered dead.  Galedon itself had been the subject of orbital bombardment by Clan Snow Raven, rendering it a lifeless glass ball.  Then the ships doing the bombardment had all been destroyed shortly afterwards as the disease had started spreading through them, infected by the scant few refugees the Clans had been able to get off-world before they had started firing.  It was like anything that even touched Galedon became infected, spreading death wherever it went.

               Marie knew that mentioning that name meant a stigma on her.  But then again, she was an unwanted guest and her mother was a mutineer, so she figured she had nothing to lose.  Besides, she didn’t like the power play going on here.  Lieutenant Caradin could have called Marie to her quarters for a private one-on-one meeting, but instead had chosen to have the meeting here where Marie was outnumbered and watched over by a 25-ton killing machine.  She knew the supposed hospitality from Caradin was just barely professional.  Maybe a forbidden name would help flip the script.

               “That was a tough one,” Caradin said quietly.  “You and your mom were lucky to get out.  You would have been, what?  Six years old back then?”

               “Ha ha,” Marie said mirthlessly.  “Twelve, thanks.  And yeah, my mom got my brother and me out.  Most of me, anyway.”

               Caradin nodded.  “So is your brother on board too?”

               Marie shook her head.  “He’s safe, though,” she answered. 

               “All right then,” Caradin said, noticing the stonewall.  She stepped back over to lean against the foot of the Raptor.  “So what’s your story then?  Thomas and I went over the bridge recordings of your landing yesterday.  Never seen anything like that fighter you brought in.”

               Marie’s eyes flickered over to Thomas before looking back to the lieutenant.  “Your Sergeant was right there with the captain yesterday.  He’s already told you my story.”

               “That was with a commanding officer who’s threatening to space you and your mother.  I’m just an interested party who wants to know more about a crazy aerojock.”

               “Isn’t that repetitive to call us crazy?” Marie asked.  Caradin smiled a little, and Hoshino actually laughed.

               Caradin took a breath, using the moment to pull her thoughts together.  “All right, I get it.  You don’t know us, and until recently anyone you met was shooting at you.  It was the same for us.  Thomas’ Wolfhound got shot out from under him in all that mess.” 

               Marie saw Thomas tense at that.  To a mechwarrior, losing your ‘Mech was the ultimate embarrassment.  It meant you were among the ranks of the Dispossessed.  You were a mechwarrior who had failed.

               “So put yourself in my seat,” Caradin went on.  “A supposedly friendly group of mercenaries just stabbed us in the back.  We’re leaving a hot combat zone with no idea of who to trust.  Then along comes an aerojock no one’s heard of, flying a fighter no one can identify and painted the colors of the people who were just shooting at us.  Now she’s crammed onto this ship with me, my men, and a bunch of civilians who were lucky to get out with what they can carry.  The contract with the Huntington government might be over, but the Hussars are still sworn to protect the people on this boat until we get them somewhere safe.  So I want to know who I’m dealing with.”

               Marie saw the mechwarriors all looking at her expectantly.  There was a hint of menace behind Wolfgang’s eyes, and Thomas had the sort of cold, methodical look of a soldier who wouldn’t question an order to shoot her.  Only Hoshino actually looked like he was giving her the benefit of the doubt.

               “All right…” Marie began slowly.  “First, I’m on the crew of this ship, so it’s not like I came out of nowhere.  You don’t have to worry about me going nuts and shooting the place up.  The rest is like I said to the captain.  One of the Hammers tried to kill me, but I threw him off the gantry instead.  I’m checked out on aerospace fighters, so I managed to hotwire his ride and get it airborne.  When the Federalist got shot down it spat me back out, and I went looking for another ship to land on.  Sirocco was the first one I could think of.”

               “Hm,” Caradin said, and Marie tensed.  The look on the lieutenant’s face was identical to her mother’s when she’d caught her in a lie.  “I remember the Federalist.  Good ship.  I was actually bargaining for a place on her a week ago.  Got outbid,” she said with a shrug.  Marie did her best to keep a poker face, but from the expressions on the mechwarriors’ faces, they could tell she was nervous.  “Thing is, she had closed off a couple mech bays to convert them into more cargo storage.  And her aerospace fighter bays got converted to storage holds years ago.”  Caradin’s face hardened.  “So there’s no way that ship could take on an aerospace fighter, no matter how desperate you were to find a ride.”

               A knot formed in Marie’s stomach.  She’d been trying to keep her story simple, avoiding the more outlandish parts that she was sure would make her look like a crazy person.  Unfortunately as far as military officers were concerned, it was better to be crazy than be a liar.  And right now, Caradin knew she was the latter.

               “So you want to tell me what really happened?” Caradin asked.

               Despite herself, Marie glanced at the door back to the corridor outside, wondering how quickly she could make it out of here.  She dragged her eyes back to Caradin however.  First, her legs were not made for running.  Second, even if somehow she could make a break for it and outrun all four mechwarriors, where was she supposed to go on an overcrowded dropship?  Not to mention running now would make her look guilty, right when she really couldn’t afford to.

               She took a deep breath to steady herself.  “What I said was true.  Mostly,” she answered slowly.  Caradin gave no reaction, so she went on.  “Except I boarded the Federalist in a battlemech.”

               “And when that got launched out of the Federalist, you found an aerospace fighter on the way down?” Hoshino asked.

               “Sort of?” Marie answered, trying to shrug nonchalantly but just looking more awkward.  “Look, I…I know exactly how this sounds.  But the ‘Mech transformed in free-fall.  I hadn’t done a combat drop before, so I started pushing every button I could find.  One of them made it grow wings.”

               Now she got the skeptical looks she had been expecting.  Wolfgang and Thomas looked at her like she’d lost her mind.  Hoshino laughed, obviously thinking she was telling a joke.  Only Caradin managed to keep her composure, and even then only just barely.  “And then?” Caradin asked.

               “And then I pulled another lever and the thing changed into an aerospace fighter.  Which I flew up to here.”

               “Hm,” Caradin mused.  “Well…I guess that checks out.”

               “Sir?”  Thomas asked.  “Really?  You believe that story?”

               “I believe that if you were going to make up a story, even you could come up with something better than ‘my ‘Mech grew wings and I flew it here.’”  Caradin stepped away from the Raptor’s foot.  “Let’s go have a look at this transforming ‘Mech.”

               “…all right,” Marie agreed hesitantly.  She was still trying to figure Caradin out, so she didn’t want to immediately make an enemy of the woman.  Caradin obviously had some sway on the Sirocco, if one of her men was allowed to sit in when the captain was chewing out some of his crew. 

               “Actually, hang on,” Marie said.  Caradin stopped mid-stride to look at her.  “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.  Whose ride is that?” she asked, pointing up at the Raptor.

               An almost-warm smile appeared on Caradin’s lips.  “The Fleetfoot’s mine,” she answered.  “Wolf’s Commando and Hoshino’s Charger are in the other bays.”

               “I call her the Garakuta no Katamari,” Hoshino added on with a smile.  “Katamari for short.”

               Marie nodded at the man with an appreciative smile.  “Doesn’t that mean ‘hunk of junk’?” she asked the big man.

               “To a warrior, honesty and integrity are important virtues in all things, even in a name,” Hoshino answered proudly.  Marie turned away to hide her little smile at the joke.  She decided she liked Hoshino. 

               As the group of them walked back into the corridor and towards the fighter bay, she thought about the Hussars’ unit composition.  A Commando and a Raptor were both light ‘Mechs.  The former was built for hit-and-run harassment, and the latter was an Omnimech, able to reconfigure its loadout to fulfill any role the pilot wanted, but it usually focused on high-speed strike operations.  A Wolfhound could back up both ‘Mechs, with good ground speed and a heavier armament that let it hunt and kill lighter ‘Mechs with ease.  The Charger on the other hand was an assault ‘Mech, weighing almost as much as the other three ‘Mechs put together.  Of course the Charger was an odd duck of a ‘Mech model, built for mobility despite its weight.

               “You guys are scouts then,” Marie stated, not as a question.

               “Scouting, interception, harassment, hit-and-run raids,” Caradin replied coolly.  “The Hussars are a light lance, but we fill whatever role we’re needed for.  Plenty of units need to subcontract out for their lighter weight elements.”

               Marie nodded in response.  A great many military units in the Inner Sphere favored heavier ‘Mechs that could take on the thickest fighting.  When a lighter ‘Mech got caught out off-guard, it was often badly damaged or outright destroyed, which left a unit with a hefty repair bill or a newly Dispossessed mechwarrior to take care of.  However, it was impossible to discount the value of a good high-mobility lance, so it was nothing new for units to subcontract out for scouting support. 

               “You guys were in it when everything went crazy,” Marie said.  “What happened down on Huntington, anyway?  It’s not like the Hammers had to capture the planet or anything, the Rangers were already on the way out.  Why attack?”

               Thomas shrugged.  “Reports are still coming in,” he said, as though that answered her question.

               “That’s the official line,” Caradin added on.  “From the feel of it though, I can tell someone’s plans got changed.  The Hammers probably had a contract with Word of Blake to cause trouble, either seize the planet or cause enough chaos that no one else wants to try invading.  I’d heard the Marian Hegemony’s hungry for a chunk of the Free Worlds League, and Huntington’s right in their sights.  But that sort of thing is above my pay grade,” she said, holding up her hands.  “Anyway, my guess is someone caught wind of what the Hammers were really there for, and their plans had to get stepped up.”

               “Either that or the Rangers decided they’d rather start something on their way out,” Wolfgang commented.

               “They wouldn’t do that!” Marie protested.  “The Rangers are good people.”

               “Ignore him,” Caradin said to Marie with a dismissive wave in Wolfgang’s direction.  “Either way, we all got off-planet, and that’s good enough for me.”

               The five of them made their way back through the corridors to the front of the Sirocco.  The aerospace fighter bays were isolated from the rest of the ship on purpose – they were the ones most likely to be vented to vacuum after all.  A crewman was standing guard outside of aero bay Charlie, but he just nodded at the mechwarriors as they walked past him, Marie in tow behind them all.  Inside, Bessie was securely locked down and resting on its nose section.  They could have at least propped her up off her face, Marie thought bitterly.

               Wolfgang let out a low whistle at the sight of the aerospace fighter.  “Really got chopped up,” he remarked.

               “It’s just armor damage,” Marie said defensively.  Wolfgang’s response was to wordlessly point at the jammed front landing gear and raise one eyebrow.  Marie rolled her eyes.

               “I thought something was off about this thing,” Caradin said.  “Thomas, go have a look.”

               Marie tensed as Thomas started climbing up Bessie’s flank towards the cockpit.  She felt less than saw Wolfgang and Hoshino tense along with her, obviously ready to step in if she tried to protest.  She didn’t know what to expect from them, but it was a reminder that she was still technically a prisoner.

               Thomas got up to the cockpit and squeezed his shoulders in through the open hatch, disappearing inside.  After about a minute he came back out.

               “Looks like a pretty normal cockpit to me, sir,” he said.  “Not sure what an aero cockpit should look like, though.”

               Caradin looked sideways at Wolfgang and Hoshino.  “Don’t suppose either of you are secretly an aerojock?” she asked, getting a dead stare from one and a chuckle from the other.  Turning away from them, Caradin walked under Bessie, looking up at the undercarriage.  She ran her hand over the fuselage, her fingers sticking in the laser marks burrowed into the armor.  She slowly walked around to the front of the aerospace fighter, where she stopped.  A grin appeared on her face, the first really genuine one Marie had seen on the woman so far.

               “Thomas, what’s this look like to you?” she asked, pointing at something under the wing.

               Thomas climbed down and stared at it.  “Um…maybe an intake or a sensor?”

               “That wasn’t your first thought.  Go on, let’s hear it.”

               “It, uh…it looks like a fist, sir.”

               That got Hoshino and Wolfgang’s attention.  The two of them led Marie around to the front of the massive aerospace fighter, to where they all saw it: under the wing was the laser and machine gun mounted on the Phoenix Hawk’s arm.  The arm itself was still there too, folded up on itself.  And tucked in next to the guns were the curled-up fingers of a fist.  At a glance it might have looked like an intake, but this close there was no mistaking it for anything else.

               Wolfgang whistled again.  “Son of a bitch…” he whispered.  “Who puts arms on an aero?”

               “Works for me,” Caradin said.  She stepped out in front of Bessie, looking the aerospace fighter over.  “All right, I’m sold on your story.”  She looked directly at Marie.  “So tell me, how much do you want for it?”

 

*End of Chapter 3*

 

Thanks for reading!

Battletech and Mechwarrior are the property of Catalyst Game Labs.

Rachel McCloud and the Bristol are creations of James Long, who among other things wrote Main Event and DRT for the Battletech universe.

Scene of Holly Caradin and Marie McCloud provided by @PhearTheHam on Twitter.

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